Here, Take This.(Buyers guide)

Jane Herman lets a professional do her packing, one look at a time.

About two years ago I started keeping mental track of top-to-bottom looks that work exceptionally well for me. Not only is this fun and efficient, it also keeps me from feeling frantic in the morning. As someone who thrives on separates and seasonal uniforms, I find it especially helpful when it seems my closet is full of nothing to wear. There's that saying "Repetition is reputation." I like to think my signatures show style. The trouble is that by streamlining my urban everyday, I'm often a mess when it comes time to leave New York City. Even in Los Angeles, where I'm from and visit often, most everything I own and wear regularly looks out of place. So I'll overpack. Excessively. Panic, I know from experience, strikes when I'm far from the comforts of my closet. The farther I go, the more I take, regardless of the fact that a full suitcase does not make a successful travel wardrobe, just a heavy one.

So when my summer busies up with international escapes--to Tulum for a weeklong getaway with my boyfriend, Justin; to Stockholm for work; to Vancouver for a small celebratory dinner--I decide to try something new. Stacey Mayesh, a fashion editor turned personal shopper and stylist, comes highly recommended by a former colleague. I'm told she does complete closet overhauls, seasonal purchases, and some event dressing. When we meet and she shows me the customized lookbooks she makes for her clients' newly strategized closets, I am sold. With two photographs per page, each book lays out complete looks, including accessory options. Visually concise and shamelessly detail-oriented, they make my memory technique look like amateur hour. Instantly I want one for each of my upcoming trips. If I can pin down exactly what I'll wear, when, and with what, I reason, I'll be a lot less inclined to take the kitchen sink to Mexico with me. With my time abroad clocking in at a total of two weeks--day-, evening-, and activewear required--packing will be a breeze, says Mayesh.

We begin with my destinations. For Tulum, a storied spot with ancient ruins and an ecological beach town south of Cancun near the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, I imagine myself in bright colors and beads. "I want everything to be effortless and make me feel pretty," I write in an E-mail to Mayesh, in which I also list my go-to labels. At the top: Dries Van Noten, Chloe, and J. Crew. Mayesh suggests we begin with a location-inspired color palette--blues (ocean), yellows (sun), and lots of warm neutrals (sand). "You want things you can wear twice. Ethnic prints, fringe, basics that are ethically produced, nothing too precious," she writes. "I'm thinking Thakoon's tie-dye dress, Marni necklaces, Organic cardigans and tees, K. Jacques sandals, and lots of earth-toned bikinis. Maybe a red one, too," she adds at the end. "It'll look great with denim shorts."

Similar E-mails bounce between us about what I'll need for Stockholm and Vancouver before she comes to see my closet. I tell her beforehand that I have a modest budget, with room for a handful of spot-specific purchases and one or two pricier investments--things that I can wear on all three trips and beyond. She arrives at my apartment with Si Belle caftans on consignment, the chicest cotton futas from Tunisia to use as beach blankets in Mexico, and a plan. For Stockholm my look will be young but ...